Greg Giacona was born in Galveston County on Oct. 22, 1964. The son of an Italian immigrant and a native Texan, he grew up in a very diverse household. At age 5, he began piano lessons and immediately fell in love with music. With parents who both loved music passionately, although of differing styles, Greg was exposed to the music of Chopin to the Beatles and everything in between!
As he progressed through his studies, Greg entered 7th grade and promptly joined the band, where he played trombone. Although he loved the symphonic band, the piano held his primary interest. Through his band participation, Greg had the opportunity to join the stage band as pianist. This is when he caught the jazz bug! So, at age 12 or so, Greg had his first group experience with pop and jazz music as pianist.
Years later, after enjoying rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues, a college jazz instructor introduced Greg to the genius of pianist Bill Evans. At this point, everything changed! This exposure to such a rich harmonic language diverted his musical direction towards this beautiful genre. Make no mistake, Greg still loved pop and rock, but now he was able to merge a deeper sense of harmony and complex rhythms with these mainstream styles.
In 1993, Greg began writing music he felt the world needed to hear. It was unusual in that these tunes were a little bit of everything-pop, jazz, funk and classical. This culminated in the release of "People and Places" in mid-1999.
Greg drew inspiration for the music from his experiences with friends and travel, hence the title. The album was produced entirely in Greg's home studio with the help of a few close musician friends. The advent of technology allows the technically adept musician to serve many roles. Greg wrote, arranged, produced and engineered the album, and performed all of the keyboard, bass and drum parts. Guitar and saxophone were performed by close friends.
Mr. Giacona served as musical and audio director for a Houston-based Television program called INET TV in 1996, dealing with the internet explosion. He composed various themes and oversaw the audio quality of the program. Greg has also composed music for several multimedia companies and recently has had the honor of composing the music content for the worldwide SHELL OIL website, as well as music libraries for Dallas' TM Century post production.
From 1998-2003 Greg lived in Dallas, performing with his jazz piano trio, directing several praise bands, and running a recording studio in his house, producing music for various churches, singers and songwriters.
Returning home to Houston in early 2003, Greg decided to make Houston his permanent home. A new CD of original music was released in March 2003, “We Dream As One”, and it has been well received by local fans. He is still producing various projects in his home studio, and having a great time using all the latest technology to create quality music!
I teach music theory, songwriting and music production techniques. Mediatech Institute
Greg is also The Music Director of Contemporary Services at
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
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